Multiply Product Attributes in Table Format

[denbuzz]

Dear Zenners,

I know I am not the first person asking this question but after searching through the forum, I have yet to find an answer. Could some one explain how Multiple Attributes can be arranged in a table format? I have an excellent example of a website developed using ZC but I have no idea on how to do this. If somebody could help me with this, I would be most grateful.

The link is here: http://www.overjoyed.com.sg/index.ph...roducts_id=586

Thank you!

[kuroi]

That would require some significant custom programming, and probably only the person who did it would be able to tell you exactly what to do.

In very general terms though, you will need to pull apart the attributes.php module to remove the HTML passed in the $options array. Then re-write the tpl_modules_attributes.php template to format the options data into the table. And then take a second pass at the modules template and the tpl_product_info_display.php template to integrate the "add to cart" block into the table.

If you wanted to include product attribute level SKUs, as per your example, you would also need to extend Zen Cart to accommodate them since version 1.3 doesn't have them (they are however due to be supported from 2.0 onwards).

[denbuzz]

Hi Kuroi,

Thanks for the response. I know this may be too much to ask but do you have a sample code I could use to work on? I do not know php to a great degree as I normally work on existing codes. If there is something I could use as a base, this might be useful for quite a lot of zenners as there seem to be quite a few users who use this kind of product display format (esp those selling standard products but have varying degree of measurements or sizes).

Cheers.

[kuroi]

I don't have sample code as I've not made a similar changes, but the three files that I've mentioned are all existing files already on your site, or any fresh download of Zen Cart.

They can (and should) all be over-ridden by placing copies with your changes in appropriately-located folders with your template name. You may also need to make some changes to the language files associated with them.

But I should warn that the complexity of the attribute system, and the unfortunate way in which it mixes processing logic and HTML generation would put these changes at the top end of the difficulty scale for template changes for somebody not experienced making this type of amendment.

[denbuzz]

Many thanks for your quick response.

I guess you do have a point. I was looking through the files you mentioned and got stumped by the arrays they use to populate the html tables. I guess modifying it and doing what you mentioned will be really difficult for most new users. I guess I will stick to using simple radio buttons with all the information typed in. Doesnt look as good though.

Any ideas if there will be a module or add on for this in Zen Cart in the future?

Thank you.

[kuroi]

These two contributions may get you much of the way there:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=876

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=469

[denbuzz]

Hi Kuroi,

Yup I did take a look at these 2.

For grid, its really useful for items that can be mixed and match and that has 2 dimensions to be attributed

(eg. Base Ball Cap where you can have Red, Blue, Green with size S, M, L size).

However, what I am more concerned is having a unique model no. for each item.

eg. A roll of duct/cloth tape (that only has 1 colour) which comes in 3 different width:

Model No: TAPE2" Description: Tape that is 2" wide
Model No: Tape4" Description: Tape that is 4" wide
Model No. Tape 6" Description: tape that is 6" wide

If i used the grid, there will be option to choose TAPE2" with 4" wide, which is not right.

As for the 2nd module, I am not too sure what it does yet. Let me go take a look. Is stock by attribute useful too in this case? I dont really need to keep track of my stock by its attribute due to the nature of my business but does it allow for individual attribute tagging to a model?

Thank you!

[kuroi]

No. Stock by attributes is only about stock. It won't give you attribute level skus. That's what the second add-on above is for.

[Salixia]

Hi Kuroi,

So Attributes Modelnumbers is like Stock by Attributes, but it lets you give each variant created by the Product Attribute Grid addon a unique price and model number?

If so it's a very very happy day. Been looking for this for a while.

[kuroi]

So Attributes Modelnumbers is like Stock by Attributes, but it lets you give each variant created by the Product Attribute Grid addon a unique price and model number?

I've never used it, but it seems unlikely. I wouldn't expect a mod called Attribute Modelnumbers to add anything other than model numbers for attributes, especially since attribute level pricing is already built into Zen Cart (though granted that's not the same as product variant pricing).